Task/Activity 5 - Media
Jamie started the workshop by telling us a bit about the history of media and film, which I had no interest in, but still had to listen to.
Before World War 2, everybody lived in a world of black and white (TV), so when colour was introduced, the shocking thing was people accepted it. Nobody questioned it or thought it was shocking. However, what people did start to do was experiment with it - see what it could do and how far it could be pushed.
KALEIDOSCOPE 1935
Released in 1935 (and sponsored by Churchman’s cigarettes), Kaleidoscope is one of Len Lye’s animated creations. The combination of painted backgrounds and geometric shapes seems somewhat ‘quaint’ by today’s standards, but they exhibit superb synchronicity with the lively soundtrack.
After this little brief (ish) boring history lesson on film and media, Jamie told us what we would be doing. We were working directly onto clear film. This film is broken down into 25 frames a second. So, on this film, roughly about a cm apart, was a little hole to seperate each frame. If you wanted a picture to show, you had to draw the picture on 25 frames in the same place, and that would show for 1 second! I was so not looking forward to doing this. The most daunting prospect of this was that we were going to be given 6ft of the film. When I thought about it though, we weren't going to be getting a lot of moving image (this was later to be developed into a moving film), due to the amount of frames needed for an image to appear for just a second.
There were inks, dyes and markers for us to use to make marks on the film. After watching the short Kaleidoscope film, everyone started to make random marks on their piece of film because thats what had been done in the film. Brian showed us a previous example, one that he had done. It all looked like squiggles and lines to me.
I decided to draw leaves on the whole strip of film I was given. At first, I left the background clear and just drew leaves. I did this on 50 frames so that it would last 2 seconds. I then used a blue permanent marker and coloured the film for 25 frames completely to make the background blue.
I drew the leaves on, but I only drew the veins on half the leaf to make it slightly different. This would last 1 second. I then did a purple one just like the blue one on 25 frames to last 1 second, but this time I drew the veins on the opposite side. For the rest of the film, I left the background clear and drew the full leaves, because when I coloured the background in, it became difficult to draw over the marker - the leaves and veins were not as clearly visible as the ones without a background, and I didn't like that - plus, it became tedious and my hand started to hurt.
Task/Activity 6 - Fine Art
I had heard about Richard's workshop from other people and they weren't exactly good things! Basically, we were painting over photos. Whoo.
First, Richard told us about where he got the idea from to use this kind of technique. He had looked at Robert Raushenburg. He was american painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations. Rauschenberg was both a painter and a sculptor and the Combines are a combination of both, but he also worked with photography, printmaking and performance.
So, we set about doing just what he had done. To be honest, this had been the workshop that I was dreading the most, because I had thought that we would probably have to sit in front of the window and draw the view.
It would have been better if I had my own photos to paint over because then it would all relate to me, but I couldn't get hold of any so I used the ones Richard had. I set them out on a large piece of paper, going vertically down the page. It turned out to look like a grid. I put paint at the top of each line of photos, and using a ruler, i dragged it all the way down. To create different effects, I dragged the paint in different directions e.g. zig zags, waves etc. I did this on quite a few photos, and I soon got bored.
I cut up a spare photo of a girl and rearranged the pieces - it looked kind of funny. Then, using some left over paint, I painted a rough, blotchy background for it. I thought it looked quirky - it kind of messed with your eyes as the face of the individual was in one place and the hands and arms in another.
I cut up a spare photo of a girl and rearranged the pieces - it looked kind of funny. Then, using some left over paint, I painted a rough, blotchy background for it. I thought it looked quirky - it kind of messed with your eyes as the face of the individual was in one place and the hands and arms in another.
